West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra began his 2012 budget speech by blaming the erstwhile Left government for the dire state of the state finances.

He noted: “In a dozen years debt grew by a phenomenal 486 percent – almost 500 percent. In per capita terms, the debt was the largest in the country by far. Tragically each child born in West Bengal is carrying on his or her head a debt of Rs 21,000.”

The expectation from Mr. Mitra– a trained economist and also the former Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce of India (FICCI) – was thus high. Not quite.

As IndiaSpend’s Dhritiman Gupta finds out, Bengal actually cut back outlays for the Departments of Panchayats and Rural Development, Urban Development, Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.

Bengal Hikes Culture Outlay

On the other hand, it announced a 129% hike for the Department of Information and Culture, a jump from Rs48 crore to Rs110 crore.

Perhaps the most interesting expenditure head is studios wherethe Bengal Government has set aside a staggering Rs 27.55 crore for acquisition and modernisation.

Incidentally, there are at least four Trinamool (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party currently in power) Congress politicians who still act in Bengali cinema. They include two Members of Parliament (MPs) and two Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). They are Shatabdi Roy, Tapas Pal, Debasree Roy and Chiranjeet in that order.

Increased Spends On Awards

Moreover, the outlays on awards, including the Bankim, Vidyasagar and Rabindra Awards, have gone up to Rs1.1 crore. The amount spent on awards last year was Rs11.5 lakh.

Spending on fairs and festivals is budgeted to go up to Rs 5 crore as against Rs 50 lakhs last year. The amount to be spent on film festivals was increased to Rs 1 crore as against the Rs 60 lakhs spent last year.

An amount of Rs 15 crore has been set aside for the Construction and Development of the Rabindra Cultural Institution. Last year only an amount of Rs15 lakh had been spent. This year is poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.

The ones to lose out, however, are those who perhaps need the money the most. The amount meant for distressed persons in the field of culture has come down from Rs 35 lakhs in the previous year’s budget’s estimates to Rs10 lakhs this year.

Let’s take a closer look at the state expenditures in the Department of Information and Culture.

The above table tells a peculiar story. For one the outlays for many important social schemes like Provident Fund for landless agricultural labours, for Primary and Middle school education, NREGS, PMGSY, sewerage and sanitation have been reduced.

The second and more important thing to note is that outlays have been reduced in the budget even though government keeps on spending more than budgeted on these schemes each year. There could be over runs this year too.

For instance, for Sishu Siksha Kendra and Madhya Siksha Karmasuchi there was an over run of Rs60 crore in 2011-12. Still only Rs 39 crore has been set aside for these heads in 2012-13.The government spent Rs31 crore over budget on sewerage and sanitation in 2011-12. Yet in 2012-13 only Rs21.3 crore has been set aside under this.

Proposed Overall West Bengal Outlay

As we had mentioned earlier, Information and culture got a 129 percent increase in the latest West Bengal budget. The table below shows the outlays in 15 of the 65 departments of the government of West Bengal.